Hugo Canoilas
Lisbon, Portugal, 1977. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria.

Hugo Canoilas works from a chaos that exists in the universe of the painter, formed by all the paintings existing a priori in his head, and by the artistic, political and social events which are excessively multiplying in contemporary life. This is how we watch the development of a work in a constant mutation, freely using a wide range of languages ​​and media, and manifesting itself in a heterogeneous way between the scholar and the popular, the social and the artistic, especially bringing together several forms, in a mimesis between the author’s ethos and praxis.

Canoilas wants to renew the view about what was already said and done, freeing up the cliché in art, reinforced by a way of exhibiting the works in installations or constellations conceived by himself.  The permanent immediacy, the affectedness of the work by the one that comes after, is implied. It requires the viewer, often through a “horizontal platform” between him and the work, as it happens in the street interventions, where a priori nothing indicates that the object in front of the one that passes on the street is an art work. Instead, it establishes a relation between an entity (the work) and another (the Other).

Hugo Canoilas has been internationally participating in several solo and group shows, and was selected for the last edition of the São Paulo Biennial.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2022
Phantasmagoria, CAV, Coimbra, Portugal.
Sculptured in Darkness, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.
2021
On the extremes of good and evil, MUMOK | Museu Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Áustria.
Buoyant, Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria.
2020
Cnidarian Polyps repaired by the Eye of the Observer, Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal.
2019
Antes do Início e Depois do Fim: Júlio Pomar e Hugo Canoilas, Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Lisbon, Portugal.
Was life that beautiful?, Às Segundas na ZBD, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal.
2018
Oh spider! Big spider! Do you bring the cure, spider?, (with Antónia Labaredas), Quadrado Azul, Lisbon, Portugal.
2017
Can it be that it was all so simple then, Galleria Collicaligreggi, Catania, Italy.
2016
Debaixo do Vulcão, MNAC/SONAE ART CYCLES, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal.
Unfaithful to daydreams, Workplace Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
Amo-te na boca, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Lisbon, Portugal.
Meanwhile, what about Socialism?, AV Festival 2016, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, United Kingdom.
I’ll devour your eyes, Galerie Andreas Huber, Vienna, Austria.
2015
Passos dias a voar, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto, Portugal.
The sun in darkness, Gallery Weingrüll, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Someone a long time ago, now, Cooper Gallery, Dundee, Escócia, Reino Unido.
2013
Fierce: Riding the wave fiercely with no fear, Workplace London, London, United Kingdom.
Ve.sch, Galeria Nosbaum&Reding, Luxembourg (with Martin Vesely).
Wound, Ve.Sch, Vienna, Austria.
Spirit of the air, WAF Kunstbuero, Vienna, Austria.
Magma, Workplace Gallery, Newcastle, United Kingdom.
2012
Pássaros do Paraíso, 30th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil.
The isle of the dead, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto, Portugal.
2011
Spoken words and white walls, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Lisbon, Portugal.
Provisoriamente Definitivos ou definitivamente Provisórios, Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães, Portugal.
Opere nomadi, Galeria Collicaligreggi, Catania, Italy.
Untitled (we can be altogether), Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal.
2010
A painting is getting its kicks, Galerie 1M3, Lausanne, Switzerland.
To fall in height, Galerie Nosbaum & Reding, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
2009
A corridor between M. e K, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto, Portugal.
Paisagens, Certamen Explum, Puerto Lumbreras, Spain.
2008
Endless Killing, Huarte - Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Huarte, Spain.
Labyrinth, Galerie Nosbaum & Reding, Luxembourg, Luxemboug.
Peinture , Sculpture, Architecture, Politique, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Lisbon, Portugal.
2007
Vota Octávio Pato - Ten reasons to be a member, Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany.
2006
Propaganda, Workplace gallery, Gateshead/Newcastle, United Kingdom.
English paintings and other works, Palácio da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal.
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2022
Flotsam & Jetsam, Quadrado Azul Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal.
TA PANTA RHEI, Park of the Chiers - Differdange, Luxemburg.
O Verdadeiro Lado da Manta , Palácio Vila Flor, Guimarães.
2021
Ernesto de Sousa, Exercises of Poetic Communication with Other Aesthetic Operators, Galeria Avenida da Índia, Lisbon, Portugal.
Apartment, Baumgasse 60, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Film as Muse, Salzburger Kunstverein, Austria.
The Small World, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal.
Osmose, Quinta do Quetzal, Portugal.
Carnivalesca What Painting Might Be, Kunstverein Hamburg, Germany.
Flora, Atelier Museu Júlio Pomar, Lisboa, Portugal.
Climate Care - Reimagining Shared Planetary Futures, MAK, Vienna, Austria.
2020
Dissonances, curated by Adelaide Ginga and Emília Tavares, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal.
FOUR FLAGS, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal.
Facts n' Figures, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, Austria.
Chaos and Rythm #1, curated by Nuno Faria, José de Guimarães International Arts Centre, Guimarães, Portugal.
2019
Do Lugar onde estou já fui embora, Galeria Liminare, Lisbon, Portugal.
The Path Finders, Rua da Bempostinha 64C, Lisbon, Portugal.
2018
COSMO/POLÍTICA #3. O Mundo começou às 5 e 47, Museu do Neo-Realismo, Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal.
Ver as Vozes dos Artistas, Saco Azul Associação Cultural, Porto, Portugal.
Segunda Categoria, Rua da Bempostinha 64C, Lisbon, Portugal.
Variations Portugaises, Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac, France.
Germinal - O Núcleo Cabrita Reis na Colecção de Arte Fundação EDP, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
What is going to happen is not the future, but what we are going to do, ARCO Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
2017
Publishing as a Toolbox: 1989-2017, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria.
Maieutics, Fluc, Vienna, Austria.
THEM OR US! A Project on Scientific, Social and Political Fiction, Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Silly Symphony, Hoast, Vienna, Austria.
Constructing Paradise, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, New York, USA.
2016
Transitioning Spaces, Art+Text Budapest, Budapest, Hungary.
2015
A Foreign Encounter, Galerie Foe 156, Munich, Germany.
Colore Uniti, Win Messe, Vienna, Austria.
Another Destination, Parallel Wien, Alte Post, Vienna, Austria.
Crocodile, Autocenter, Berlin, Germany.
Arquipélago, Matadouro, Porto, Portugal.
Ficarra Contemporary Divan, Ficarra, Italy.
Dio Horia in Mykonos, Dio Horia, Greece.
Import Export, Skulpturinstitut, Vienna, Austria.
Dromosphere, Galleria Collicaligreggi, Catania, Italy.
Cold Places, Galerie Andreas Hueber, Vienna, Austria.
Granpallazzo, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, Italy.
Destination Wien 2015, Kunsthalle Wien, Museumsplatz 1, Wien, Austria.
2014
Ciao!, Galleria Collicaligreggi, Catania, Italy.
Um cadáver esquisito para o século XXI, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes, Lisbon, Portugal.
When elephants come marching in, de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Liberdade, College of Arts, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
syllabus 1_talking about art and life, Galleria collicaligreggi, Catania, Italy.
Arbeiter kehrt heim, Franz Josefs Kai 3 Gallery, Wien, Austria.
2013
General Strike, Dienstag Abend at The Mews Project and ArtReview project space, London, Reino Unido.
Galerie Kamm, Berlin, Germany.
Parallel Vienna 2013, Vienna, Austria.
Was ist Kunst? - Mirrors of Production, Jaqueline Martins Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil.
On Things - On Minds, Kunstverein Schattendorf, Schattendorf, Austria.
2012
Are you still awake?, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Portugal.
Drawing Quote!, Pigna Project Space, Rome, Itália.
Porta Nigra: Black Gate, Hidde van Seggelen Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
Critical Alliances, PM Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia.
Strata, Sammlug Lenikus, Vienna, Austria.
Infinite tasks, Museu Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal.
Beyond history, Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães, Guimarães, Portugal.
CCC _ Collecting Collections and Concepts, Guimarães 2012, Fábrica ASA, Guimarães, Portugal.
2011
Wallpaperism, Motel Campo, Carouge/ Genève, Switzerland.
ESAD 90 -10. 20 years of fine arts, Edifício Somafre, Lisbon, Portugal.
NeoSI: neue Situationiste Inter...nationale, Shattendorf Kunstverein, Austria.
Just photography, Martos Gallery, New York, USA.
The days of this society are numbered, Abrons Art Center, New York, USA.
2010
Originalfunktional, Wiener Art Foundation, Vienna, Austria.
Bienal PortugalArte10 - Personal freedom, Pavilhão de Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal.
Entre Muros (Junho das Artes 10), Óbidos, Portugal.
People, Fundação EDP, Museu da Electricidade, Lisbon, Portugal.
Drawing Time, Galerie Poirel Nancy – FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France.
Broken fall (geometric), Enrico Astuni Studio, Bologna, Italy.
Don't stand so close to me, Ragnarhof, Vienna, Austria.
2009
KAAP, Fort Ruigehoek, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Fiac 2009, Galerie Nosbaum & Reding Art Contemporain, Paris, France.
De Malangatana a Pedro Cabrita Reis – obras da CGD, CCC - Caldas da Rainha, Centro Cultural de Sines and Mosteiro de Tibães, Portugal.
Landscape, Gallerie Nosbaum & Reding Art Contemporain, Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
2008
8th Gyumri Biennial – parallel histories , Portuguese Representation, Gyumri, Armenia.
Articulações, Allgarve, Antiga Fábrica da Cerveja, Faro, Portugal.
Second nature, Dexia Bank, Luxembourg, Luxembourgo/ Domaine de Chamarande, Chamarande, France.
2007
Dear painter paint me… with heart and reason, Trafó Contemporay Art Center, Budapest, Hungary.
Antimonuments, AH Galeria de Arte Contemporânea, Viseu, Portugal.
Awards
2020
Kapsch Contemporary Art Prize 2020, Vienna, Austria.
2002
1st Prize, Prémio Francisco Wandschneider, ANJE, Porto, Portugal.
2001
1st Prize (Photography), Jov’ arte, Loures, Portugal.
Sammlung Lenikus, Austria.
Collections
MUMOK - Museu Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Austria.
Lentos Museum, Austria.
EVN, Private Collection, Austria.
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal.
Banco de España, Spain.
Fundação Carmona e Costa, Portugal.
CCB – Centro Cultural de Belém, Portugal.
Caixa Geral de Depósitos collection, Portugal.
PCR (Pedro Cabrita Reis) collection, Portugal.
Budapest Galéria, Hungary.
ANJE – Associação de Jovens Empresários, Portugal.
Fundação PLMJ, Portugal.
Loures Town Hall, Portugal.
Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Portugal.
Ministério da Cultura, Portugal.
Love the sunset and dawn because there’s nothing more useless than that, 2015 - 2018. Ink on unprimed linen. 300 x 450 cm 
Paradise Birds, 30th Bienal of São Paulo - Iminence of poetics . River, 2012. Ink on unprimed linen. 600 x 740 cm 
Paradise Birds, 30th Bienal of São Paulo - Iminence of poetics . Landscape, 2012. tinta sobre linho 
Untitled (to Annicka), 2015. ink on unprimed linen. 320 x 250 cm 
Oh witches! Oh misery! Oh hate!, 2014. ink on unprimed linen. 350 x 280 cm 
Rambo Rimbaud, 2015. ink on unprimed linen. 300 x 450 cm 
Otto, 2016. ink on unprimed linen. 350 x 280 cm 
Oh spider, big spider! Do You bring the cure spider? Galeria Quadrado Azul, Lisbon. Nautilus, 2017. ink on unprimed linen. 210 x 170 cm 
Butterfly eaten by ants, 2017. ink on unprimed linen. 210 x 170 cm 
Light Fire Heat, 2015. fluid acrylic on linen. 250 x 225 cm 
God is good and the devil is not bad, 2015. acrylic on linen. 1560 x 800 cm. Ficarra Contemporary Divan 
God is good and the devil is not bad, 2015. acrylic on linen. 1560 x 800 cm